Le FIDLab est un espace de travail autour de projets de films sélectionnés en réponse à un appel international. Chaque année, une douzaine de projets sont sélectionnés, sans critères de format, de durée, de sujet, que ce soient des fictions, des documentaires, des animations ou des séries, au stade de l’écriture, du développement ou de la postproduction.
La plateforme a été créée pour offrir aux porteurs de projets l’opportunité de rencontres dynamiques avec des producteurs, fonds de soutien, diffuseurs, distributeurs, vendeurs, TV… Le FIDLab se positionne à la fois comme un espace défricheur de talents et un écrin en termes de diversité accueillie, et est devenu un label reconnu dans le monde.
La onzième édition du FIDLab a eu lieu les 11 et le 12 juillet à Marseille.
Plateforme de coproduction internationale pour des projets cinématographiques à tout stade de développement, le FIDLab 2019 a retenu 14 projets issus de 11 pays parmi plus de 318 reçus suite à un appel à candidature international.
Le FIDLab propose des journées de réflexion et de travail en deux étapes : une présentation des projets où les intentions par les images sont placées au cœur du dispositif, suivie par des rencontres en tête-à-tête avec des professionnels.
Cette année plus de 230 rendez-vous individuels ont eu lieu.
Le jury composé de Meng Xie, fondateur et directeur de la société de production et de ventes internationales chinoise Rediance ; Marie Logie, directrice de la plateforme de production et distribution belge Auguste Orts ; et Christoph Friedel, producteur allemand chez Pandora Filmproduktion GmbH, a décerné 9 prix, dotés par 9 partenaires :
produit par Ruda Cine / Argentine et CinemaScópio/ Brésil
Le lauréat recevra 2 billets long-courriers d’Air France.
produit par Black Forest Film / Allemagne et House on Fire / France
Le prix Commune Image consiste en 8 semaines de montage à un projet produit ou coproduit par une société de production française.
produit par AMI / Royaume Uni et Etnograf / Pologne
Le prix Fondation Camargo permettra une résidence de 4 à 8 semaines.
produit par Seeland Film Produktion / Suisse
Le prix Fondation Camargo permettra une résidence de 4 à 8 semaines.
produit par Invasión Cine / Colombie et Pomme Hurlante Films / France
Le prix Mactari consiste en mise à disposition d’un auditorium de mixage et/ou d’une salle de montage son, sans technicien.
produit par Volos Films / Taiwan
Le prix Micro Climat Studios comprend des travaux de post-production (montage image, montage son, étalonnage, conformation) à définir par le lauréat.
produit par ANDOLFI / France
La société de sous-titrage Sublimage propose au lauréat l’adaptation, la traduction et le calage de son film vers une langue de son choix, français, anglais, espagnol.
Thanks to the support of Media Creative Europe and the National Culture Fund of Bulgaria a delegation of Bulgarian women producers is invited to take part in the professional activities of the festival.
Bulgarian Cinema, with its remarquable and glorious history, with an average of 20-25 films per year produced during the 70s and the 80s, went through difficult years following the end of communism in the 90’s. This dark period ended in the years 2000 when it acquired a new impetus.
A new wave of young filmmakers set the basis for a revival of the industry. Stephan Komandarev (The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner, 2008) and Kamen Kalev (Eastern Plays, 2009) are few examples of the directors that contributed to the international dimension of Bulgarian Cinema.
Today, ten years after, Bulgarian cinema is in constant growth and it earned a well deserved place in the international festivals landscape. In spite of this positive trend, Bulgarian filmmakers remain little known in France. FIDLab decided to foster the discovery of the most promising production companies in Bulgaria by inviting them with their projects in Marseille. Last but not least, we are glad to acknowledge the high quality of the company profiles and a strong presence of female professionals in a traditionally male dominated industry.
CONTACT
+359 898610764 redcarpetfilms.bg@gmail.com www.redcarfilms.com
Veselka Kiryakova graduated from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia, where she studied Film Editing. After editing numerous Bulgarian and international short films and documentaries, she produced her first feature film, Alienation, in 2013, directed by the beginner Milko Lazarov (twice awarded in Venice). Her second production was Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s multi awarded and well travelled Glory (2016). In her latest production, she collaborates again with Lazarov in the Bulgarian-German-French co-production Aga that premiered out of competition at the Berlinale 2018.
Independent film production company with a bend for art projects, Red Carpet was founded in 2009 and among other things, it has produced some of the biggest and most successful projects of the Bulgarian National Television to date. Red Carpet Films is always looking to collaborate on meaningful projects with strong artistic integrity.
Feature film • Development
Red Carpet (Bulgaria) • Budget : 1 200 000 € • Financing in place : 13 000 €
Momchil (9) is a child with an odd abnormality which he believes to be angel wings. When his father’s goat herd is threatened with a mandatory euthanasia because of a disease spreading in the mountains, Momchil decides to escape. He is accompanied by the only person who believes in the existence of his angel wings – the girl of the same age Yoana.
Feature film • Development
Red Carpet (Bulgaria) • Budget : 300 000 € • Financing in place : 12 000 €
Angel is a 50-years-old astronomer boasting the biggest telescope in the Balkans. One day, Angel learns that the government has decided to close the facility.
A following day a group composed by a physicist and two engineers arrives. They have to prepare the telescope for conservation, but Angel has another thing on his mind. He locks the scientists in the observatory. He tells them the story of his life and shows them a picture on which he believes he captured God’s image.
Feature film • Development
Red Carpet (Bulgaria) • Budget : 450 000 € • Financing in place : 11 000 €
Dora (80) is a once popular actress who gave up on acting. She lives in a lavish old state- owned flat given to her by the Union of Bulgarian Actors.
Her ordinary day-to-day living changes when one of the rooms in her flat is given by the Union to a young couple of artists: Tony (34) and Yasna (27).
Influenced by the presence of a young man, Dora starts changing. Her instinct of a woman who is used to being constantly admired starts guiding her again to the point where Dora decides that it is time for her to make the last performance in her life.
CONTACT
+359 88 791 6692 vanya.portokal@gmail.com www.facebook.com/portokalfilms
Feature film • Post-production
Portokal (Bulgaria), Terratreme Filmes (Portugal)
Somewhere in the Balkan Mountains, five men are stuck in a snowstorm.
To reach town they are obliged to cross the woods, but that’s insane in the midst of winter: the road is snowed over, you can get lost and freeze, the wolves are hungry and can be heard howling all night long… Still, early that morning, Petar Motorov, must have harnessed his magnificent sleigh and headed to town. Nobody saw him leave, but the falling snow still hasn’t erased his tracks. But when the sleigh returns, Petar Motorov isn’t on it. In fact, no one is: there’s just a fur coat, a shotgun, the frozen carcass of large wolf. What has happened to him?
Feature film • Development
Portokal (Bulgaria)
A twelve-year boy commits suicide in a small provincial town. In his farewell note, he says he took his life because he received a failing trade on his math test. Still, the adults in town are bent on finding a reason, an external thread, that would make sense of the boy’s death. While they create the mythical culprit — an incompetent mother, a serial killer — the teenagers in town keep living as they know best, in the adults’ blind spot.
Feature film • Development •
Portokal (Bulgaria), Morning Glory Film (United Kingdom)
When a lonely salesman chances upon a comatose teenager, their meeting creates an electric energy with the power to heal. Hailed as a messiah, the salesman becomes unwittingly involved in a scheme to rip-off his followers. Can the salesman put things right before it’s too late to save the boy’s life? Electricity is a fairytale meets dark comedy in a post-socialist world where happy-ends are not what they seem.
CONTACT
+359 2 9166 029
mira@siff.bg
www.siff.bg
After finishing her education in theology and psychology, Mira Staleva joined the team of Sofia International Film Festival from the very beginning. She is now the Deputy Director of Sofia IFF and Head of the festival’s co-production market Sofia Meetings. She is also a part of Art Fest, a production, distribution and exhibition company based in Sofia.
Art Fest Ltd. is a production and distribution company. Since 1997 it has produced Sofia International Film Festival: the biggest film festival in Bulgaria, accredited by FIAPF. Since 2004 significant part of the festival is the Sofia Meetings co-production market (pitching for feature film projects and works in progress for Bulgarian and regional cinema). Art Fest is one of the biggest art house distribution companies in Bulgaria. Recent films pro- duced and co-produced by Art Fest: Barefoot Emperor by Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens (in post-production) Irina by Nadejda Kosseva, The Wild Pear Tree by Nury Bilge Ceylan, Brighton 4 by Levan Koguashvili (in post-production), King of the Belgians by Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens.
Feature film • Development
Art Fest (Bulgaria), The StoryBay (Germany) • Budget : 2 346 973 €
A genius of despair meets a desperate genius in a sailor pub in Hamburg. Acclaimed American writer teases out the story of violinist Vasko Abadjiev, from climbing to the top of his career to hitting rock-bottom in his life on the backdrop of Europe before, during, and after World War II.
The accidental encounter between the two men cracks open a door to the incredible story of Vasko, a musical prodigy who had the world at his feet and lost everything he loved, while first fascism and then communism rattled his life.
Feature film • Development
Sense Production (Serbia), Kinorama (Croatia), Art Fest (Bulgaria) • Budget : 1 009 168 €
A seemingly boring vacation with two old ladies turns into a life changing experience for 12 year old Sofia as she kisses a boy, reunites with her estranged family and faces mortality on an idyllic island in the Mediterranean. After overcoming her initially overwhelming boredom Sofia starts to enjoy her time on the island and learns there’s more to the seemingly dull old ladies.
CONTACT
+359888732320
gery@menclips.eu
www.menclips.eu
Gergana Stankova holds a Master Degree in Journalism and PR from Sofia University. She accomplished a Master Program in Audiovisual Management MEGA at Media Business School in Ronda, Spain in 2004 and was selected to participate at European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs EAVE in 2013. For 7 years she worked for Boyana Film Studios. In 2006 Gergana set up Menclips, which has produced a number of films amongst which The Singing Shoes by Radoslav Spassov (Special Jury Prize Silver George, Moscow 2016), Radiogram by Rouzie Hasanova and Rules a short film by Yassen Genadiev.
Menclips is a professional film, TV and commercial production company based in Bulgaria. We produce, co-produce as well as provide services for foreign productions. For more than ten years, we have been involved in the production of commercials, short and feature films, documentaries and photo shoots.
Our production teams and technical crews are multi-lingual, experienced and close-knit. We always work with a smile because we love what we do! And we strongly believe in every project we take!
With office in Milan, we also provide our services in Italy and the neighbouring countries.
Feature film • Development
Menclips (Bulgaria) • Budget : 435 000 € • Financing in place : 30 000 €
Angelina (14) discovers that she possesses an unusual ability to heal people with her body energy. The young girl practises this esoteric activity at home, secretly from her father, Anton (37), but strongly encouraged by her mother, Lora (36). When Lora loses her job and the family situation starts getting worse, the woman “dives” irreversibly with Angelina into the esoteric world searching for an escape from their disastrous real life.
Short film • Development
Menclips (Bulgaria) • Budget : 36 000 € • Financing in place: 0 €
Teen sisters are left with no choice, but to hitchhike home having missed their last train. As they argue about what to tell their mother, a dodgy car slows down with a couple of threatening gangsters inside. Chloe would rather walk, but her sister Jess quickly accepts the offer and climbs the vehicle.
Short film • Development
Menclips (Bulgaria) • Budget: 53 000 € • Financing in place : 38 000 €
Introverted and edgy, the Romanian backpacker Andrey (29) travels on his way back to home on board of a regional train somewhere in the Bulgarian province. When the convoy breaks down in the middle of nowhere, the growing discontent among the passengers creates an electrified and tense atmosphere. Suddenly, a frightened elderly woman sparks the terror in the coach by pointing her finger at Andrey accusing him of being a terrorist.
CONTACT
+359 898 416 772
contrastfilms@gmail.com
www.contrast-films.net
After a master’s degree in law and filmmaking, in 2009 Katya Trichkova founded and directed Contrast Films, a production company whose main objective is to develop and produce fiction and documentaries. Since 2011, she also works as an independent producer for other Bulgarian production companies, such as Izograph, Chouchkov Brothers, Cineaste Maudit Productions and Argo Film, founded by Bulgarian director Stephan Komandarev (The world is big and salvation awaits, selected for Oscar 2010).
Her recent filmography includes Caini written and directed by Bogdan Mirica (Argo Film) (Fipresci Prize Un Certain Regard Festival de Cannes), The Judgment by Stephan Komandarev (Argo Film) and Chain by Eicke Bettinga (Contrast Films).
Argo Film is a film production company based in Sofia. It was founded by Stephan Komandarev in 2001 for the production of feature and documentary film projects aimed at the national and international markets. It produces films relying on strong characters and universal story lines, dealing with international themes that call upon common values and explore the bridges between cultures.
Contrast Films is a production company based in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was founded by the producer Katya Trichkova with the main purpose to support authors to make their films.
The company is focused on the development and production of fiction and documentary films.
Feature film • Post-production
Contrast films (Bulgaria) • Budget : 45 638 € • Financing in place : 20 000 €
As a hearing child of deaf parents, Tanya knows that in Bulgaria deaf people have limited possibilities. Therefore, she invested all her time, money and energy to create and maintain the only private rehabilitation center, where she helps deaf children to start hearing and talking. For many years, this was the “center” of her life and her family. When Tanya got ill and has to go for treatment abroad, her older daughter Kathy (20) has to take over the center. Will she manage to cope with all the challenges she has to face in the absence of her parents and to maintain the center?
Feature film • Post-production
Argo Film (Bulgaria), SEE Film Pro (Serbia) • Budget : 381 464 € • Financing in place : 100%
Sofia, November 9th, 2019. Night. As the country prepares to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the regime change in Bulgaria, three police patrol cars roam the streets of the sleeping city. The police officers on their rounds take us on a journey through a society that is still looking for its purpose and identity after three decades of transition. These are scenes of survival and failure, of generosity dissolving into social cruelty and indifference. The elusive preservation of dignity seems to be the sole point of getting through the night.
Feature film • Production
Cineaste Maudit Production (Bulgaria), Contrast Film (Bulgaria), Parada film (Romania) • Budget : 604 916 € • Financing in place: 574 670 €
Vassil is a documentary film director. He puts all his energy into a long-term project – a film about the relationship between Avtonom, a monk, and his mother Lisa. Vassil is not happy with the final version of the film when he learns that Lisa will have to undergo a risky surgery. Vassil goes to the Monastery where he finds out that the monk suffers an emotional breakdown. At the hospital, while Lisa is undergoing the surgery, Avtonom shares with Vassil the reason for his emotional breakdown. Vassil faces a dilemma – to help his characters, or to keep filming them.
